


it's simone's world and we're just living in it

by altissimozucca



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Max and Charles have a kid, but nothing serious, mentions of an accident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:03:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23144848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altissimozucca/pseuds/altissimozucca
Summary: In the middle of the night,and in the middle of the day,in the good times,and in the bad times,I will always love you.
Relationships: Charles Leclerc/Max Verstappen
Comments: 14
Kudos: 74





	it's simone's world and we're just living in it

**Author's Note:**

> alternatively called: i don't know what to name this work

** in the middle of the night, **

** **

The sound of their baby’s cries over the monitor woke Max up in the middle of the night. He groaned, rolled around and turned on the bedside lamp before sitting up and running a hand over his face. Checking his phone, he squinted at the 02:17 AM on the screen before letting out a sigh and getting up.

“I know you’re awake too, you ass,” he spoke quietly to his husband.

Charles opened his eyes slowly, mumbling, “It’s your turn tonight.”

Max rolled his eyes but smiled, yawning as he quietly padded down to the nursery. The cries have gone quiet now, but he took their daughter into his hands nonetheless, rocking her all the way to the kitchen where he put water to boil and measured the formula.

Looking into Simone’s green eyes, Max couldn’t stop the loving grin from spreading on his face. He gently tickled her tummy, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead; she let out a gurgle, but other than that remained silent, her big eyes fixated on her father.

“You’re a good girl, aren’t you?” Max cooed at her. At two months old, Simone wasn’t fussy at all; she was a calm baby, asleep for the majority of the day (and night) and observing when she was awake. Charles and Max were able to go about their usual routines no problem, though one of them always kept his eyes on her.

She busied herself with sucking on her first as Max went to prepare her formula, making sure it’s not too hot for her. Sitting down on a chair, he cradled her gently before feeding her; in his peripheral vision, he noticed that Charles had gotten up, too, and was watching them with a loving smile on his face.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Max asked, not moving his eyes from Simone.

“The bed is too cold without you,” Charles replied, sitting down on a chair next to them. He took one of Simone’s feet in his hand and tickled her, causing Max to shake his head disapprovingly.

“Don’t bother my child,” he playfully scolded.

“She’s _our_ child, Max,” Charles reminded him, earning an eye-roll in response.

Max placed the bottle on the table and rocked Simone, patting her back until she let out a burp. “I know she’s our child. You’re still not allowed to bother her,” he said. Charles just chuckled and took one of Max’s hands in his, pressing a kiss to the back of it.

Simone began falling asleep in Max’s hands, so he took her back to the nursery. Placing her in her cot, he ran his fingers down her face before leaning down and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. “I love you so much,” he whispered before leaving the room, shutting the door quietly behind himself.

** and in the middle of the day, **

Charles looked around in search of Simone, the bustling paddock wrecking his nerves. The one-and-a-half-year-old was by his side moments ago, but disappeared so suddenly, and Charles was beginning to panic. It was the first time they ever brought her to a race, and she was supposed to stay with Charles’ mother during the event.

But she disappeared before Charles had the chance to hand her to his mother while he fulfilled his media obligations on Thursday. Despite knowing that almost everyone in the paddock knew who she was, Charles was scared – there were a lot of people and it wasn’t a place for such a small child to be wandering around alone.

And so, Charles ran to his mother and informed her of the situation, earning a disapproving look from his mother. _“How could you let her run off, Charles? She’s a baby,”_ Pascale scolded her son, worry equal to his on her face.

_“She was there and a second later she was gone,”_ Charles tried to explain, dragging a hand down his face. He groaned, _“Oh, God, Max is going to kill me.”_

_“I’m going to look for her, and you go, too,”_ his mother said. After seeing that he was close to tears, she added more softly, _“She’s okay, Charles. Someone would have seen her. Everyone here knows who she is, don’t worry.”_

Charles nodded. He informed his press officer of what happened, and they all went searching for her, scattering around different areas of the paddock. Pierre joined him, after he saw the distressed look on Charles’ face and found out what happened.

Some Renault engineers told him they saw her run towards the Red Bull motorhome, and he found himself rushing there as fast as he could. He noticed people giving him odd looks, but he didn’t care; Charles almost ran into Alex on the way.

“Woah, what’s wrong?” the Red Bull driver asked as he saw the Ferrari driver along with the Alpha Tauri driver behind.

“Simone ran away,” Charles quickly explained, “Some guys from Renault said they saw her coming here, I don’t know. I need to find her, _oh God.”_

“I thought she was with Max?” Alex had a confused look on his face. “I saw her with Max before he went into the press conference; he was holding her. Now that I think of it, he _did_ look exasperated, but I thought it was because he doesn’t like those things,” he explained once he realised Charles was looking at him expectantly.

“No, he was most definitely annoyed at me,” Charles let out a breath of relief, “Thanks, Alex.”

“Max is going to kill you,” Pierre commented from behind, an amused look on his face.

Charles hit him in the shoulder, letting himself finally relax. His baby was safe, with Max, and even though Charles would most likely end up getting murdered once Max was let out, at least he knew Simone was okay.

Pierre and Alex ended up wandering off as Charles phoned his mother to tell her where Simone was. After doing that, he decided to go watch the press conference until its end; he stood to the side after getting let in, smiling at the sight of Simone sitting on Max’s lap, curled up against him.

Max noticed him from where he was sitting next to Sebastian, eyes hardening at the sight of his husband. Shooting him a sheepish smile, Charles waved slightly, and Max rolled his eyes, tightening his grip around their daughter. Some journalists noticed Charles, too, looking at him curiously as he tried his best to blend with the shadows.

As soon as the press conference ended, Max placed Simone on his shoulders and walked up to Charles. Their child was pulling on his hair, giggling to herself as she eyed the world from the height; in contrast to her smiling face, Max didn’t look happy in the slightest.

“I’m… sorry?” Charles tried as Max reached him, taking Simone down from his shoulders and held her hand in his so she doesn’t try running off again. “I swear to God Max, she just ran off, I looked away for a moment and she was gone, I was so scared I almost started cryin--” his rambling was cut off by Max kissing him lightly.

“I know, she told me she ran without telling you. I already talked to her, don’t worry,” Max said with a smile, taking Charles’ hand in his and grinning when Simone took his other, copying Max’s action. He looked at Simone, catching her attention, “Come on, Mone, let’s go find your grandma.”

When they checked Instagram later that day, their feeds were full of photos of their little family; no matter how cute Max looked with Simone in his lap at the press conference, both of them did their best to make sure a similar thing didn’t happen again.

** in the good times, **

At five years old, Simone was a well-known guest of the paddock. Welcome by both the Ferrari and the Red Bull families – extending to the Alpha family, too – the girl found herself smothered from all sides, with everyone loving her polite yet cheeky personality.

Max always said she was a carbon-copy of Charles; the Monègasque argued (not that he minded), though his family would always stand on Max’s side. After all, it was Charles who gave the sperm to their surrogate almost six years prior.

Watching Charles sitting on the ground with Simone sat between his legs, both of them wearing that same game-face (Charles in preparation for the race, Simone in preparation for cheering) with their same-coloured eyes squinted in the same way, Max could really see the similarities in the two of them.

He had no doubts that the paddock photographers would be taking pictures of the father-daughter moment, since it was rare that the two of them let her so close to the track. But Charles needed it; Max could see it from a mile.

The race was an important one. Charles’ championship hopes depended on it, and Max knew he was seeking comfort and reassurance in their daughter. There wasn’t much Max could do, other than let Charles hug Simone and have her cheer Charles on from the Ferrari pit wall; though they weren’t raising her with an affiliation to either of the teams, she seemed to favour the red one.

Max didn’t mind.

It didn’t stop Charles from rubbing it into his face.

A fond smile made its way onto Max’s face as Simone turned around in her papa’s lap and pressed a kiss to his face; Charles cradled her close, looking at Max with a fond look in his eyes. They were called into their positions, and Max watched as Simone made her way to the pit wall like she owned the place.

He squeezed Charles’ hand in passing, wishing him good luck before getting into the car. They still had a race to do.

In the end, he came third but that didn’t matter; Charles came first, sealing his first world championship, and Max wrapped his arms around him tightly as soon as they got out of the car. “I’m so proud of you,” Max whispered in his ear, a grin on his face.

Charles couldn’t contain his joy as he received hugs and congratulations from everyone surrounding him. Mattia held a squirming Simone in his arms, hugging his driver after Simone wormed out of his hold and wrapped herself around her father’s legs.

Chuckling at his daughter’s antics, Charles picked her up and carried her all the way through interviews and celebrations. “She doesn’t want to let go,” he said to Max once he asked him whether she’d be at the podium, too.

“Simone, let go of your papa,” Max scolded her gently, but she shook her head defiantly. “I have to drown him in champagne, and I can’t do that if you’re holding him, _schatje,”_ he added.

With a dramatic sigh, she let go of Charles, “If I have to.” Max tapped the top of her head, and she grinned at him toothily, “I’m gonna find Uncle Arthur.”

“You’re not going anywhere by yourself, Mone,” Max retaliated, “Stay here with Vicky, and please, don’t run away. We’ll be back soon, I promise.”

Vicky nodded at Max, a sign she’ll take care of Simone. “Come on, kiddo,” she said, offering her hand to the five-year-old who accepted it, “Let’s go watch your dads on the podium.” Max watched as they left the cooldown room and then they were ushered to the podium.

He met eyes with his daughter and shot her a wink as they played the anthems. As soon as the proper celebrations started, Max spilled his whole bottle of champagne over Charles’ head, hugging him tight and pressing their lips together in a loving kiss.

** and in the bad times, **

By the time she turned seven, Simone began realising how dangerous racing actually was. She tried karting when she was little but didn’t like it that much; she preferred sitting at the Ferrari pit wall and watching the races rather than driving herself.

Max and Charles never pushed her. They were aware she changed interests every few days and supported her in anything she wanted to do; from dancing to football, Simone tried it all and in the end settled for nothing. It was okay – she had her whole life to figure out what she wanted to do.

After one minor accident, when she threw a tantrum because she was scared for Charles, they explained to her how dangerous racing was. She learnt to wait until they got out of car to make sure they were okay.

So, when she saw the Red Bull of her daddy crashing into the barriers, she froze. Simone froze in her spot, eyes not leaving the screens in front of her until she got the confirmation her daddy was fine. When it didn’t come, when there was no response from him, she started screaming.

The session had been red flagged, her daddy’s body getting pulled out of the rubble by the medical team. Words flew around her head, but she didn’t hear them; Simone fell to the ground in tears.

Someone wrapped their arms around her, whispered calming things in her ear, but she couldn’t stop crying. _“I want my papa,”_ she begged, sobs rippling through her until Charles was finally able to come to her. He hugged her tight and held her close.

_“He’s going to be okay, Mone. He’s just sleeping,”_ Charles spoke quietly, soothingly. It was true; Max was unconscious, but that was as much as he’d been told by the crew so far. _“We’ll go and see him soon, baby, don’t worry,”_ he continued, running his fingers through her hair.

It took hours for them to be able to go to Max. The doctors said he’d be okay, but that his body had gone through shock and he was unconscious for the time being. Simone crawled into bed next to him, despite Charles telling her not to; he managed to get her to his lap once she realised Max wasn’t waking up so soon, and she fell asleep like that, pressed up against Charles.

Charles didn’t sleep. The moment Max opened his eyes, he was there; the Dutchman groaned loudly, asking, “What the hell happened?”

“You had a crash,” Charles replied quietly.

Max squinted at the lights, but nodded, “I remember, yeah.” He looked at Simone, “How’s she taken it?”

“Badly. She’s been crying since she saw you getting pulled out of the car instead of getting out yourself.”

Before Max could reply, a nurse walked in. She did a check-up on him and told him he was good to go as soon as he wanted to. After she left, Charles gently woke Simone up, “Wake up, daddy’s awake now and we can go back to the hotel soon.”

She blinked at him sleepily before noticing Max was sat up on the bed. Tears began falling down her cheeks again as she jumped from Charles’ lap into Max’s, causing him to let out a huff, “Careful, Mone.”

“Don’t ever do that again, daddy, I was so scared,” Simone started rambling. Max tightened his grip on her, pressing a kiss to her forehead; Charles sat to the edge of the bed and hugged her, too. “Don’t do that again. I thought you died.”

“I’m okay, _schatje,_ don’t worry. I won’t be racing for a few months, but that’s it. I’m okay. I’m sorry I scared you, sweetie. I love you,” Max assured her, not wanting to let go of the two people who mean the most to him.

** I will always love you. **

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr at altisssimozucca](https://altisssimozucca.tumblr.com/)


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